You know the sayings?  “Old gardeners never die; they just recede” or “Old realtors never die; they just become listless.” They’re ways...

Years ago I found myself in a debate over an organization’s mission statement.  At the time it read, “meeting people at their point of...

left to right: Martin, Director of Tauernhof, Richard, Charlie, board member of Tauernhof. “Stay a little longer” my friend Martin...

The sad reality, though, is that the testimonies offered that day also served as a grave reminder that courage, servanthood, generosity,...

My temptation in such times is what sociologists call ‘cocooning’, a tendency to withdraw into the predictability of our homes, close the...

My predecessor just keep using his gifts day after day for 38 years. The difficult truth that few seem interested in hearing these days...

1. Coffee.  Always first:  Coffee 2. Bible reading while drinking the first cup. 3. Meditation (from the Bible reading) 4. Writing in the...

The church hasn’t been immune to this polarizing.  We’ve mirrored the culture’s political tribal hatred, enough so that it’s increasingly...

The equivalent of 5 jumbo jets worth of women die in labor each day… life time risk of maternal death is 1,000x higher in a poor country...

a few of the thousands save by courage, hospitality, and generosity. Every time I travel in Europe I try to read some European history,...

The first winter we lived in the mountains, an early storm knocked down hundreds of fir trees deep in the cascades, and those trees...

Christ followers are exiles.  Accept it.  We always have been, always will be.  When Paul said “maranatha” in I Corinthians 16:22 he was...

You are God’s uniquely handcrafted beautiful creation.  You have gifts to bring to our darkening and weary world, and that means you...

You’ve been ripped off I mean to live this year as if it were my last, and will hate every time I fall below that standard and fritter...

Before burning season is over, though, we’re already on the prowl for new wood for the next season.  It must be found, cut into pieces...

Behavior needs to match mission, right? They did it “according to the book”.  With too many passengers and not enough seats, they asked...

With fears of “the other” on the rise, a look at Jesus life, from beginning to end, is like a drink of fresh cold water in the midst of...

retrieving our car meant enjoying this view again today! My wife and I recently returned from a beautiful adventure, hiking 50 miles of...

“Speaking of Jesus”, which is one of my favorite books, precisely because the author has a knack for telling people about Jesus as if...

1. Make knowing God the number one priority in your life. This was the word spoken to me from Jeremiah 9 when I was 20 years old and I...